


prides and prejudice

by wyrdsworth



Category: Original Work
Genre: Solarpunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 07:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18616066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyrdsworth/pseuds/wyrdsworth
Summary: Biopunk and solarpunk, coexisting somehow. It's not bloody, but nor is it pretty: just the slow war of attrition between ideals.For the Solarpunk Exchange 2019.





	prides and prejudice

**Author's Note:**

> Punk vs. Punk: a Solarpunk society in contrast with another 'punk at comparable technology level in the same world, i.e. a high-tech Solarpunk society juxtaposed against a Cyberpunk society, or Solarpunks using parabolic mirrors to generate steam power in a Steampunk world, etc.

"I'm looking for any records you have about the fault," Human said, striding confidently into the little library.

As usual, the huge glass atrium was perfectly ordered. The ceramic desk was polished, the walls were stark white, and the decorative silver ficuses stood in the corners, serrated and petrified echoes of yesteryear.

Wolmok looked up from the tablet and smiled, tilting zer head to one side. :i have just the thing: (It was always weird, hearing zer thoughts repeated by the external neurolink receiver clipped on to Human's ear, but ze'd gotten used to it. They had adapters of all kinds to allow the few unmodded humans to get around, at least for their short visits.)

Ze unfolded two of the graceful appendages that lay at rest around zer shoulders. Wrapped up in each smooth, almost tentacle-like limb was a single star-bright disc. Ze held them both out to Human. From the way Human showed all of their eyes and teeth at the same time, this was pleasant.

Human had always been a little sentimental, in the forgetful way that the unmodded tended to be. The old things, the bent things, for some strange reason gave them the most pleasure, so whenever they came to Wolmok's library, it was always for something obscure that one of the other citizens couldn't find--or, to be entirely correct, 'couldn't find'.

Then their expression changed. "Wait, you just had these ready to go?"

Not in quite so many words. Ze had received an angry message from Aoir mV railing about 'your parasite' and 'unthinkable to give them that information', and after a few milliseconds of prodding and searching, Wolmok had gotten the gist of what Human wanted, and from there it was no trouble to find the relevant records before Human had even left the scholar's office. Simple, really, when you had neurolink wetware implanted before you could walk. But for Human? Yes, just ready to go.

Wolmok smiled in what ze hoped was a cryptic fashion and proffered the discs, which they gratefully accepted. :word gets around human:

Their face contorted, though the smile stayed. "Wolmok, 'human' isn't my name. Can you loosen up with the modslang just a smidge?"

Wolmok blinked zer nictitating membrane. :funny that's just what the last human said:

Human threw their hands up in a parody of frustration. "Fine, be weird about it. Thank-you."

They slipped the discs into a bag at their waist, which was both brightly embroidered with some yellow star-like shapes and humming slightly, at least until Human activated its seal, shielding the records from the outside world.

:you're not going to watch them here i thought we could make an afternoon of it: Wolmok felt zer throat do something unpleasantly emotional, and Human treated zer to one of their most mischievous grins.

"Come out with me, then. The embassy's not far--and you need to get outside."

Wolmok didn’t have mouth capable of human speech, but ze could make it smile in a fashion that Human found familiar, even if the smile revealed teeth more like an eel's than a land animal's. :i'll get my coat:

* * *

By the city's standards, Wolmok was far from an unusual bioform. Alex hadn't always known that, of course, and they didn't like to think back on the time before they'd gotten used to the extra tentacle limbs, the unnatural eyes, the distinctly human body-plan but with dolphin-like skin, the bear-like pads on zer hands, the face with its sharp muzzle and needle teeth, the absence of external ears. The city had all kinds of modded folk, each one either more alien or more beautiful or more deadly or more ruthlessly practical than the last. The guards at the embassy usually modelled themselves after more familiar predators. Ruru, their liaison, was among the most human in the city: no visible changes, apart from a hint of iridescence in her brown skin, and a lion's lashing tail. 

The city was beautiful, even if it was mostly empty. Sparkling glass relics of the pre-fault era stood side-by-side with new white and blue spires, every dark panel a carbon sink and every neon blue accent tinted like a summer sky. No trash, and no other pedestrians: just the regular, ceaseless, neon hum of an electric city. More sharp, silver trees lined the multilane streets, at odds with the knife-like lines of the buildings and streets. Don't look too hard, they said: you might cut yourself. 

Wolmok moved hesitantly. :we missed you at the last session:

"Yeah." Alex ran a hand through their greying hair. "I'm sorry. Work never stops."

Wolmok was so hard to read, but they knew zem pretty well, enough to detect some discomfort in their body language. 

They weren't lying. It was getting harder and harder to negotiate with the 'form states: no-one likes meddling, and sometimes she felt like that was all the Coalition was good for, just meddling and hounding and trying to change what couldn't be changed. 

:not your **fault** : ze quipped. :and speaking of which when are you so keen on ancient history that's the sort of thing old bodies like:

The street began to arc into the smooth curve of the city centre; just ahead, a sleek leo-form slunk under the unfolded wing of their car. They treated Wolmok to a languid wave as they disappeared, but Alex caught their eye for just a second: a flash of amber, predator-sharp, then it was gone.

"Nothing. Just--" Alex paused, shifted their scarlet cloak. They felt like a brightly-coloured frog: _don’t eat me, I’m poisonous_. "Just getting older."

The car slipped away as they passed, into the stream of electric traffic, and was soon out of sight. This, too, was different; back home, cities were small, walkable if you chose and flat enough for chairs or lifts otherwise--you couldn't get far without seeing a face. Everything here was mechanical, except for the animal breathing of Wolmok, and their own heartbeat in their ears. 

:wait you're aging: and somehow it sounded like a question even without any inflection.

"I know it’s not the fashionable choice.” Alex chuckled. “But it’s worked for a couple thousand millenia. Why ruin a good thing?”

Wolmok was definitely uncomfortable now, the tentacles folding tighter around their chest. Alex wished they knew whether ze had picked a mod that allowed them to hug themselves on purpose, or if it had been a happy accident. It was harder to tell here than back home: clothes could be removed, hairstyles changed, and that they were temporary also said something about the person who chose them. Where did Wolmok end and ‘optimum librarian hybrid class A model 93’ begin?

:it's just a waste of resources: ze said, :when you can care for yourself now what’s the good of descending into obsolescence and losing all your experience just to be replaced with a stupid creature that has to learn everything again:

Alex grinned. “Didn’t you know? The human brain stops growing sometime around 25, so I’m way past my expiry date. No, if anything a fresher model is overdue, don’t you think?”

They glanced at the stream of traffic, and the slowly approaching silhouette of the Coalition embassy. “Besides, I like to think we give the next generation a head start. It took me a whole lifetime to get where I am. Each time we pass on that knowledge, humanity starts from a higher rung of the ladder. Plus,” they added with a nudge, “no-one really wants to live forever.”

:but even if that’s true and let me be clear you’re absolutely wrong there: Wolmok's eyes flickered away. :forms are evolution on speed how can you possibly hope to outrun us:

Alex felt themself go still for a moment, before they could stitch the right response together. That hadn’t been what they were trying to argue, but they responded calmly, slowly.

"You're all so beautiful you know. Not the same way folks are beautiful back home. You're beautiful like a photograph of a lion. But a photograph isn't a lion, and you can't prop it up in the Savannah and expect it to kill antelope. A real antelope would chew up a pretty picture."

:oh yeah well the lions are dead and we’re the closest you’re gonna get: Wolmok said, and though the tone was neutral ze had bared zer needle teeth at no-one in particular. :spare me any this is not a lion navel-gazing:

"Hey, again, beautiful picture." They held back the truth of the conversation, the argument that they could only ever have on the assembly floor or behind closed doors back at the Coalition, while their youngest daughter made a cup of tea and their partner threw in support, and either nothing or everything was at stake. Ze was beautiful: rippling muscle, artfully designed (chosen?), but they also embodied a fundamental difference between the two nations. Self versus collective; excess versus thrift and care, the power to rule against the power to govern. The same arguments humans had been having for centuries, now with a little more kick. 

But Wolmok was still agitated and went on, talking so quickly it was like they were sprinting for some unseen finish line. :you use our medical advances to keep your people alive our vaccines our manufacturing plants for your solar panels all those disgusting chemical processes with their toxic chemical byproducts you pass them off to us and then you burn us with the very gifts we made you:

"Yes, but," Alex tried, but Wolmok didn't seem to hear. 

:you couldn't last a day in that savannah because you're so weak and soft in that body and one day it's just going to stop anyway and you're going to **let it** :

Alex laid a hand on Wolmok's shoulders; ze flinched, but the gesture was tolerated, and the two kept walking, as ze made horrible hacking growls at the back of zer throat.

"That's why I'm interested in the fault," they said gently, as silence fell and left the tension hanging in the bitter air. "Not just because I'm getting senile. Because no-one talks about it--and we have to talk about it, from both sides." Alex tried to catch Wolmok's eye, but they were staring resolutely at the pavement. 

:you shouldn't have asked aoir about it: ze said, still growling. 

Alex hmmed, tried to look nonchalantly at the embassy as it loomed larger. "Why not? He's an expert." They kept slowly patting Wolmok's shoulder. 

:he's been gnawing at my link ever since you left: Wolmok sighed and gently brushed Alex’s hand away. :how did you rustle his jimmies:

“He saw me at the assembly last week,” Alex admitted. “Doesn’t like what his records are being used for.”

:not an ancestral vendetta or blood oath that seems unlike him:

“Just the regular common-or-garden antipathy, that’s in the job description.” It almost made them miss home, with its infuriatingly slow but well-meaning conflict resolution experts, the huge verdant gardens you could walk until the frustration dissipated, lost in the rustling leaves. Walking a city of ceramic and glass just put them even more on edge.

There was a dark car parked in front of the embassy as they approached, and a small crowd of waiting reporters lounging by the front door and sucking on various smoking tubes. Some wore the silver tattoos of their media brand; others were decorated in silks, and one had a slug-like cat curled around their neck. And there was the leo-form they had seen before, arranging a microphone on their lapel. 

Wolmok’s nose flared. :he’s here and he’s brought a press crew human are you really sure there’s nothing you need to tell me right now:

“No, I haven’t--”

:well he wants to fight someone what did you do:

Alex pulled the bag tighter. “He can’t do that. Challenging a non-mod would be a career disaster.”

:maybe for you but we are in the city he’s going to prove how weak your people are:

The door of the embassy swung open and a familiar figure stepped into the neon glow. Aoir had a mournful look on his face. His mane was brushed to a glossy white sheen and his blue cat’s eyes glittered at the assembled figures. At his heels were two distinctly non-human wolves, also coloured lurid blue and white, with teeth like saw blades. 

“Thank-you all for coming. It is with a sad heart but a resolute will that I must inform you of the corruption that has recently manifested in one of this great city’s own purported allies.”

:we need to get you back inside: Wolmok kept zemself between Alex and the crowd as they turned and headed for the back of the building. Alex pulled up their feed to let Ruru know what was happening and found thirty unread messages waiting. ‘ _We’re outside. What’s going on?’_

“There is no greater future than progress. To leave the stagnant mortal flesh of our forefathers behind, to fashion ourselves a form that is true, or even to step into a new body whole and clean: this is the gift of rebirth, a promise fulfilled.”

“He’s talking pre-fault nonsense,” Alex murmured. Wolmok didn’t answer. Ruru’s chat pinged: _‘I’m opening the back door now.’_

“But there are those, even now, who resent our advances in every scientific field, those who resist our striving for self-improvement. As a great leader once said, ‘the flesh of us,” here he pounded his heart, “is the truth of us’,” And here his eyes glided across the crowd to rest on Alex and Wolmok. “And some are too cowardly to wear their truth.”

This was exactly what they always did: some kind of jab and feint; even at the assembly, after years, still looking for a weak spot in their pride as if pride meant anything to them. They thought of home and smiled. It meant a little, true: as a representative, you were mostly what other people thought of you. 

They gave Wolmok’s shoulder a reassuring pat and stepped forward, shoulders back, voice clear. “Thank-you for your concern, master Aoir mV. Please note my truth, worn just as well as anyone else here.” They gestured to the twin badges on their autumn-red cloak: the twin stars of the assembly, and the bright green ivy-leaf of the Coalition. “I’ll be in assembly on Friday, and my office door is always open. Don’t be a stranger.”

And instead of continuing to the back door, they advanced on the front door of the embassy.

Aoir gritted his ceramic-white teeth. “They have stolen precious records from my office, our national heritage!”

Alex maintained their composure. They were close enough now that the scholar's dogs would have no trouble grabbing her; their breath was hot and sour. Had it really been just this morning that they'd had almost this exact exchange?

“I was _loaned_ two _copies_ of some fault analyses.” The reporters’ expressions became stony, and they pressed on. “Look, an archivist has accompanied me to ensure its safe handling and return,” Alex gestured to Wolmok, who was hyperventilating as unobtrusively as possible. Aoir’s expression was smoothing over, but the wolves’ teeth were bared--of course, they were neurolinked animals. That realisation was what made Alex flinch, not the teeth.

“Doesn’t this seem suspicious in the light of the assembly’s recent motion to review all fault records as a body?” Aoir said acidly. “Or would the Coalition rather ignore the wishes of its only ally?”

Alex shook their head, focusing on the smooth streets of home, the thick green leaves, their daughters’ brilliant smiles.

“Master mV, I’ve just got questions, the same ones that the assembly wants to answer: probably the same that all Exandrodine want, too. I just want to understand.” 

They smiled brightly and held out their hand for Aoir to shake. “We’ll be working pretty closely while the assembly examines the archives. Could this be the beginning of a brilliant partnership?”

They didn’t want to feel guilty for the rush of grim satisfaction at the look on Aoir’s face. For a moment, they wondered if the scholar was going to challenge them anyway: teeth in their jugular, hot blood on the marble streets, an alliance in ruins all because they’d misjudged one angry, self-righteous academic. Then the warm hand closed over theirs, and in the flash of photographers’ cameras, they were blinded by light. 

:oh thank god that's over please get inside you are so weak and squishy alex please just get inside: came Wolmok's frantic whisper.

Alex couldn't reply, but they could smile politely as they turned and walked, oh so calmly, back into the embassy. Another day, and the job hadn't killed them yet.


End file.
